BigWallop wrote:

Place the motor on a wooden board, and keep the socket where the plug goes
well within arms reach so you can switch off quickly. A 5 Amps fuse in the
plug is enough for this test. Place a foot on the motor in case it jumps
around when you apply the mains to it. That Centrifugal stuff can be a
bitch sometimes.

Another idea would be to see if you could borrow a known working motor
from another person's machine. I've seen an engineer hook up a motor on
top of the drop and hold it with a big hammer :P.

pedant
There's no such thing as centrifugal, it's centripetal force. As I
understand it centrifugal suggests that the centre of motion is
repelling something outwards where as really it's Newton's law.. Unless
a force is acted upon by another force it will continue in the same
direction, that is if something is flying round the centre of motion it
will keep flying outwards. Or something like that... Maybe you should
have a look on google.
/pedant

--
Regards,
Aaron.